Friday, September 30, 2011

Truly rug hooking is my passion but I've had to knuckle down of late and finish some partly made dolls started months ago and make new items for my show which occurs tomorrow. Making dolls, bears, make-dos and things used to be fun until I got hooked on hooking, now I have to force myself to do it and I tend to wait until it is a crisis.

A few years ago I used to do maybe 8 or 10 shows per year. But eventually dropped the ones which weren't profitable much above the recoup of my booth fee. Although in the beginning it was fun to sit and chit chat with customers and other vendors, it soon became work to load the car, unload and set up the booth, tear down booth and load it into the van, come home and unload the van and put everything away.

The show in Lewes is a good one, lots of fun, music, food and I sit and hook between customers. I even have repeat customers who come to see what I have and since I know their 'likes' I usually do sell them something. Sometimes it gets so buy I don't have time to sit and pull loops unless someone inquires on "how to hook". Ahhhh, music to my ears ~ getting someone else hooked.

I did finish this cute piece by NotForgottenFarm and it will go with me to the show so my excuse for hooking was 'it is for the show'. But problem is hooked items are more costly than a doll or make-do. However, I did sell a couple hooked purses and two sizable hooked pieces in July so that was a nice little bounty for me.

Just this morning I did finish up the 4th Candy Corn Cat which I think is cute as the dickens. Making multiples is not my favorite thing to do but there were only 4 of these that I made so that wasn't so bad. I cannot get this picture to straighten up yet it was okay before I posted it. There's no problem with me correcting a situation like this on my web site because there is a 'picture tool button'. So if anyone knows how I can correct this on Blogger, please enlighten me.

Speaking of multiples, I also did 4 wool Jacks on candlesticks. I didn't have one in stock and they usually sell pretty well since they are not only decorative for the fall season but can opt as a make-do pincushion. BTW, that cute rug is one by Tonya Robey of MadHen which I purchased on e-bay a few years ago; I just LUV her stuff..... and no, it is not for sale.

Here are two pictures of the booth space at the July show in Lewes. Thankfully the weather was great and hope the same will be true for tomorrow.

The doll in red sitting on the table to the right, and two of the 3 little 'tykes' seated to the right of the hooked face Annie sold at the Lewes show in July too, so my doll quantity is a little sparse this time except for witches.

I do have a couple Christmas items to take in case anyone is in the market to get ready for that this early. Heck, I was in a dollar store this morning and they are putting out the Christmas items already right beside the Halloween so guess I'm not too far off the mark.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

It's that time to post an updated picture of our Sincerely Jane Challenge rugs on Rughookers Yahoo group so yanked my out to work on a couple trials in the border. One of the gals has completed her huge rug already. I drew mine with fewer squares and I'm glad because this size suits me much better, plus I can work on other hooking projects also. Here is what mine looks like now.

My plans were to just have one row of the light hooked around the border but might try another row to see if it pulls the rug together better. The challenge ends in April 2012 so there is plenty of time for me to work on other projects and still get this one done in time.

For those of you who did not read my previous post a few months ago, the Sincerely Jane challenge was a result of someone posting a picture of a quilt made based on the one made by Jane Stickle in 1863. Brenda Papadakis kept a record of her journey making a quilt and developing the patterns for the quilt. The book was aptly named "Dear Jane" and since the book is copyrighted we could not name our challenge the same so call it Sincerely Jane.

Also on Yahoo Rughookers group I've joined the Sensational Seasonal Swap and have started working on that one since we have to ship to our swap mate no later than the middle of November. It is not necessary to commit to hooking all four seasons but think that I'd like to do that since the size is only 8" x 8" square. We are to work on the winter season for this first swap and the next would be a spring theme. The designs can be anything we choose and we know our swap mate's names so have an opportunity to get to know them during the process as we e-mail back and forth.

The dimensions are required to be an exact 8x8 in case a recipient of all 4 mats would like to attach them four in a row or two on top and two on the bottom. So we don't have to bind but rather have an 1" excess which we turn under and base. That way the recipient can decide if they want to bind them individually or as I described earlier. And our swap mates will change with each season just in case someone decides to not continue with the next seasonal swap. But I'm in for all 4 seasons.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

There was a lot of interest and questions on ‘how to’ for the Bev Conway signing technique of her wedding rug in a previous post.I was not in Bev’s class this year but she shared the information with all of us at meal time.By the end of the week’s camp I’m sure every hooker there had either received the same information from Bev at meal time or had gotten wind of the wonderful new way to sign and date rugs from other students. This technique can be executed even when there is no place to sign on the front; that was evident with the complex and beautifully design rug did for her daughter's Wedding Rug (a previous post).

I asked Bev if there would be an upcoming article or book offered thru Rug Hooking Magazine regarding this technique. She hoped so and commented that she did ask seasoned hookers, teachers from every contact she had to find out if this had ever been done before. The unanimous answer was 'no'. So Bev has the copyright on this technique and hopefully there will be a future article in a rughooking publication.

So, after coming home from camp I just had to try the technique that Bev generously shared with us.Since I hadn’t seen any demonstration went on how she described it.Bev said that you need to pull your loops up at least as high as #8 strip (1/4”) and the lettering strip needed to be a light and noticeable color from the rest (like white) and more narrow that the strip used for the letter/number hooking the better.So I’m guessing if you hook in #3 strips to begin with it wouldn’t work.

What you do is put your initials and date, message or saying, on red dot tracer, reverse it and write it on the front of the foundation.That means it will look like gobbly gook from the front, but that is okay because it will be read from the back.

So my log cabin rug was my experiment since it was what I am working on.As you can see to the top left, that is where I placed the year 2011 and it is reversed.This is the front of my rug.

So then I drew my initials on the right hand side of the rug so that when it was read from the back it would be my initials first and then the date hooked. Yes, the picture below is the back (yes, I know, it’s confusing…. I drew the design twice because I didn’t like how I drew the trees and leaves the first time so flipped it over and drew it again).You can see my initials “SP”. But really should have put another row of background color around so you could see how the letters could be hidden from the front.

From the front I hooked the initials (which had also been reversed on the foundation on the front) and used a #5 strip.I thought I was hooking low enough but since I’m a high hooker had to keep nudging those babies down.

Then I cut my #8.5 strips for the background and started hooking around them.Bev said to leave only one thread (as in linen backing thread) between the letter or number hooked and the color being worked on the design front.I must say that just because the letters were hooked low, that my initial reaction was to hook lower than I normally do around the white initials. Hey, remember all that training as hookers about ‘you can use different cuts in a rug just hook them all the same height?’So it took some effort to be sure to pull those #8.5 loops up as I would normally.

It might be my imagination because I know where the initials are hooked..or, it could be that it just needs another row of background hooking to move those other loops tighter to fully conceal the white letters. I'm sure that with another row of background the letters will be hidden forever except from the back.

I think this is a magnificent thing that Bev has worked hard to establish. I mean, stitched on fabric can pull off, but this is a way to forever memorialize our rugs as gifts, heirlooms and historical records of our dedication, love and hard work for our hooked pieces.

Monday, September 26, 2011

The other day I showed you a couple pictures from the rugs in progress which were started at Rugs by the Sea camp in Cape May and here are a few more. Another cool thing about going to a camp and having this rug 'slap down' is that you get to see designs you may not know about, and what is even more fun is to see the the way different people are hooking the same design and in colors of their personal taste.

And, most, if not all of them were hooked using #8 or #8.5 strips. Now, perhaps in a flower center, eye, button, etc., the size might have reduced to accommodate the small area. But it was funny to hear Kris say, "#8.5 is the new #8" and I totally agree with her. When I went from using a #8.5 back to the #8, the #8 seemed more like a #6 strip.

I really like this design called Pumpkin Tyme, it is design based on the art work of Lori Brechlin of NotForgottenFarm and offered by Spruce Ridge. There were 3 different people hooking that design and it was really fun to see the color choices.

Here is a second version:

And then a third version of the same design.

I thought these colors were nice and notice the Ram's head handles on the pot. Mighty interesting look. And for the life of me cannot remember the designer, sorry.

I also liked the colors in this floral pattern entitled "NotForgotten Flowers", by you know who.... Spruce Ridge. When I saw this one and the next one in class it was a toss up as to which I would want to buy and hook next.

This is a cute design too; I like the color choices and the design. It is called Emma's Garden and is another design offered by Kris Miller at Spruce Ridge Studio.

Yes, there are still more 'in progress' rug pictures that I took but it will be more fun to see them all finished at rug camp so you will be able to see a finished piece this time next year.

I've had a couple people inquire as to how the hidden message was accomplished in Bev Conway's wedding rug. Well tomorrow I'll try to explain it to you. I tried it on my log cabin rug and so far only have my initials in but can take a picture of that tomorrow and explain how it works.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

There is just so much eye candy at the shows when you go to rug camps that you really need to be sure your camera battery is fully charged. I can remember one year when I was neglectful and only captured a few of the rugs and the show was over before the battery was charged up....I wasn't a happy camper (hooker). So made sure my camera was fully charged before leaving my house and going to camp. Okay, so here are more delicious rugs.

This one was hooked by my friend Deb and is a design which Woolley Fox offered called Hildafern; Deb did this rug with marvelous Barb Carroll and each of the ferns are hooked with different vintage paisley prints. Yesseree bob.... my gal pal used different antique paisleys to hook all those gorgeous fern leaves and it is a delight to see in person.

Next is a rug that Deb started last year in a class with Kris Miller called Peace and Plenty and is a design from the artwork of Lori Brechlin of NotForgotten Farm.

Next is a great lion hooked piece from Old Tavern sign. I just wish my photo skills had been a little better to do the piece justice. It was hooked by the dear sweet Janet Reid.

Something which is difficult (I think) is hooking snow. This rug is called New England Snowy Day which was also designed and hooked by Janet Reid.

Come back tomorrow when I'll be showing you more rugs from the show or from the show-n-tell of the hookers before the end of class.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Okay, I have to admit to being a wide cut primitive hooker. I have done narrow cut and have proved that I can do it but my heart is with the olde looking (some say ugly and dark) rugs that I was used to seeing in the former and good Country Living magazines and often in the Early American Life magazine.

Anyway.......while my love of primitive wide cuts is my favorite, I do truly appreciate the work involved with narrow cuts and orientals. It takes a lot of work with the shading, color design and hooking. So the appreciation is there. So now I'm going to show you some rugs that are diverse and the creativity of some of these hookers just took my breath away.

Here is a rug called Mountain Mama. Can you see the image of a woman in the mounds of the mountain? Now THAT is creativity!! Wish I had some of that.

And my dear dear friend Char ~ the same one who did the Wedding Rug with the tree.... this is her original design entitled "Full Beaver Moon". The story behind it is that each November the area where she and her husband have a cabin, the owners can put out traps for beavers. As you can see there is the full moon behind the beaver, the shadow of the beaver and then the moon shining on the earth on the sides. It has teeth and toes made of femo. Let me tell you this is one very talented woman. Why she hangs around with me I have no clue because I do not have that kind of creativity in my bones.

This next one I thought was extremely creative and could use up wool strips we all collect from our scrap basket. Uh, except I don't think that I am creative enough to make something this well executed either. This was done by Judy Quitman which I'm guessing was a challenge of sorts with a group she belongs to because of the name "Scrap Challenge".

And this one was very interesting as well. For some reason I'm intrigued with the Mola's. Perhaps it is because my friend Deb introduced me to the real thing and now maybe I could do it in a hooked piece. My pal Deb has real Mola prints hanging in her studio and when I go there I just walk by and enjoy every piece and the work it involved.

The rug below is a Karen Kahle design Flower Box. I love that rug and have hooked it but in more primitive (okay, dark) colors. I enjoy seeing it every day as I walk from the kitchen to my computer room.

This one was started in a class with Kris Miller last year by Jeri Livingston and I was looking forward to seeing the finished project since it is a free pattern in a Polly Minick book that I have. As you can see it was incorporated with fur locks. You could write Kris at http://www.spruceridgestudios.com to find out what was used as she had different locks providing critters which could have produced this look. And, since it is just about that time of year thought I'd post it here to get you thinking about gifts to give or to hook for yourself.

And....yes, there are more rugs that I haven't posted yet but I need to keep you coming back for more and don't want to bore you with numerous rugs which you eventually don't even notice.

Friday, September 23, 2011

It is always a treat to see the rug show at Cape May and each year I look forward to seeing what Evelyn Lawrence brings, as I love her style and see more antique rugs she has discovered. She hooked Animal Farm and the Hen and Chicks and I just love the Hen and Chicks but the photo just doesn't do the colors and hooking justice.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

There were two wedding rugs on display at the rug show last week at Cape May. One was designed and hooked by my friend Char for her daughter and son-in-law and the other was designed and hooked by teacher and designer Bev Conway for her daughter's wedding.

The wedding rug that Char hooked was humongous. The rug could easily have accommodated the bride and groom, both sets of parents and even more of the family or friends with room to spare. It must have been a real challenge for her to hook as the dimensions and weight of the rug increased.

The groom's family was in awe and honored that their family names were forever recorded in the hooking of the heirloom family tree and wedding rug. The two dates at the bottom were for the two separate wedding ceremonies; one which was a traditional Asian Indian ceremony and the other a traditional American wedding.

This rug below was hooked by designer and rug hooking teacher Bev Conway. As you can see the flowers and leaves are beautifully shaded and an outstandingly beautiful rug. So you are wondering.... since it is a wedding rug, where are the dates, initials, etc?

You know how sometimes you want to hook your initials and date in the rug but there just doesn't seem to be enough space or a proper place to hook them without distracting from the appearance of the rug and design? Well that is the technique that Bev developed and held a secret for a couple years as she experimented with and perfected a new way to sign and even capture a message in a rug. It can be done without destroying the beauty of the top. Bev even consulted with seasoned hookers and teachers to find out if this technique had ever been recorded or seen done previously. The unanimous answer was 'no'. None of them had ever seen this technique performed or known to exist anywhere.

Now, I'm not letting out any secrets as Bev was quite willing to share her technique with her students as well as those of us who sat at the same table with her during meal time. By the end of the day of the show I'd expect there were some 50 women who learned of the technique even if they had not been in Bev's class.

The full message hooked says, "Life isn't measured by how many breaths you take, but rather by how many times it takes your breath away." 2010 Ashley Jeff All my love bmc

Isn't that just SO romantic and lovely for a mom to hook for her daughter and son-in-law?

So now, I want to put my initials and date on the back of the log cabin rug I started last week so that I won't need to worry about destroying the ambiance of the design on the front.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Here are a couple pictures of the show-n-tell we do at Cape May so each of the students from all 4 teachers can see what everyone has been working on. This is really exciting because you get to see patterns you may not be aware of and various color combinations or techniques you may wish to find out about. The teachers were Kris Miller, Judy Quitman, Cindi Gay and Bev Conway. My roomie Deb, friend Char and I took a class with Kris Miller.

This is the cutest design called "Glad Tidings" a pattern offered by Spruce Ridge Studios which was the rug my roomie Deb was hooking. What I thought was awesome was the metallic ribbon like yarn she hooked for the buttons, the cord or chain on the horn and the bell on the hat. It gave it a little shine as if it was a bell on the hat and metal for the buttons and chain. Really cool, so then of course I had to go to the yarn shop in Cape May and pick up a ball of it for myself for when the urge hits me to have something special like that for me.

I saw several rugs that I would love to hook myself but I've already got my rug for the November class with Lucille Festa chosen as well as the next rug class next May with Barb Carroll. And I've several designs here on linen that I want to hook between classes ~ don't we all?

In addition to having a real rug show during the week and is offered for the community to visit as well, but we students have a rug 'throw down' where we look at what each of us has been working on during the week. On this side of the front yard at the Chalfonte is where Kris Miller and Judy Quitman's students placed their rugs.

And on this other side is where Cindi Gay and Bev Conway's students placed their rugs for show-n-tell. It just happens that way since that part of the real estate is closest to the room where their classes were held.

There are more rug pictures to come later as I want to show you something our friend Char is working on as well as some finished rugs.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

I don't think this brain or body could have stood one more day of fun. It really is exhausting having fun at rug camp. Rugs by the Sea camp is held at the Victorian hotel Chalfonte where the food is excellent and the organizers Norma and Linda are professionals who have this camp running like a well oiled machine.

They bring in fantastic teachers; this first week was Kris Miller, Bev Conway, Judy Quitman and Cindi Gay. I've had Bev Conway numerous times but last year and this year had Kris Miller. Kris has a great color palate and prefers to teach nothing smaller than #6 and considers the #8.5 to be the new #8. She is interesting, fun to be with, upbeat, very great at color planning rugs and tells great goat stories and soon will have great Alpaca stories to share I'm sure.

Since there are no TVs in each room (it's a Victorian hotel of course), there is a small TV room where guests can decide which show to watch from that room. However, my roomie brings a flat-screen TV with DVD capabilities and three of us pals watch movies, eat snacks and sip on wine in the evenings in our room. And of course we stay up too late, eat too much and drink more than we should (UH, I drink more than I should). Unfortunately I put on 1 1/2 pounds in just 5 days since I ate much differently (indulging in things I normally don't eat at home) and my ways have changed since being home and will get that weight off within the week (uh.... I hope). But the food there is so delicious who can pass up that cuisine?

For years I've wanted to hook a log cabin rug and I FINALLY put it on linen and started a project. As mentioned in a previous blog, it is an adaptation of a rug titled "July Cabin" by Barb Carroll and offered in her book "American Folk Art Rug Hooking". There are 18 patterns in the book which may be enlarged to hook. I took some liberties with the design to make it mine but the essentials came from the book.

A lot more progress could have been made on the rug if I wouldn't talk as much as I do or if I'd hook and not look at the person I'm talking to. I should talk and keep my head down and look at my project and keep pulling loops. So, suffice it to say that I could have had a lot more to show for my 4 1/2 days of hooking had I done that.

Here is an overview of my project and the right side will be quite similar to the left side but not a mirror image. However, I'll have the same multi-colored leaves on the tree (don'tcha just luv it??). The only thing I told Kris was that I wanted to do different colors for the leaves and showed her my selection of colors (the same ones which were in my Woodland Deer rug).

So, preparing for this rug, as soon as I saw Betsy Reed's MR ED wool it just shouted log cabin and I ordered it immediately. Funny thing is, that when I opened up my container to show Kris the wool selection I brought (and many different browns for a cabin) she immediately picked up Mr. Ed as the log colors. AH HA!!!!!!! Maybe I really am capable of picking colors for a rug after all.

And the roof is Jinx by Heavens to Betsy. However, I cannot remember which names the colors of the leaves are and the background is a piece of wool I purchased at a manufacturer in Baltimore.

The sheep is hooked using Icelandic Lopi and the ear is a piece of wool which was prodded in. So this rug will be hung somewhere in the house so the ear doesn't get squashed.

Kris picked her choice for the border wool I took to camp but haven't started hooking that in yet. So my project will just have to wait for me as I've got to catch up here on yard work, laundry, and getting ready for my art/craft show October 1. I've got 3 dolls to finish, one remaining pumpkin on a candlestick to finish and hopefully finish hooking the NFF cat in the shoe before the show.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Lemme tell you that I am psyched about rug camp. I get this way not matter how many times I go to a rug camp or even if it is the same one I attend year after year. It is like I'm a kid waiting for Santa.....can't go to sleep because of the excitement..... Santa won't come until I do go to sleep. Oh my what a delimma

So I leave early tomorrow morning and my vehicle is partially packed ~ oops, but I still need to print out my 'camp list' to be sure I've include every thing I need. Finally did a rug camp to share with my gal pals so we wouldn't forget who was to bring what. And of course each one of us has our own person things....cell phone, camera, supplies.

For those of you who have not gone to the Rugs by the Sea rug camp, which is organized by Norma Batastini, it is wonderful. There are two weeks of camp which has classes two separate weeks. Some teachers, such as Bev Conway, teach both weeks.

We stay in a Victorian hotel named the Chalfonte which has a fantastic history and the food is magnificent. Since it is a Victorian hotel there are some human comforts which aren't available... elevators, telephones or TV in every room. But if you need those there are other sleeping accommodations available in Cape May and you could be a commuter.

Here is a hooked rug which depicts the Victorian Hotel from the front view. This a design by Bev Conway and she has another version from the side.

There are rocking chairs lined up in the front and side where hookers sit and chat away during the afternoon and until the sun sets. And when the horse drawn carriages take tourists around you can hear the driver saying they are 'hookers' in town for the week and we wave and they laugh.

So here I am putting this on my blog and I've still got to finish my suitcase (was waiting to see what the weather required) and to finish loading up my vehicle so I can get an early start to the Lewes/Cape May ferry in the morning.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Here I was scared out of my wits when Irene made her uninvited appearance so I was not worried about Lee at all. Well, lemme tell you Lee is a menace and have had rain the last three days and torrential rains all afternoon. It is also supposed to rain tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.

Things from the backyard have been floating down my driveway, the overflow hole at my fish pond is covered with water and with water up to my knees in the back yard it is over the bottom of the entrance to my crawl space. And all this after spending a few thousand dollars to have a 'conditioned crawl space' so no humidity builds up to cause rotting and termites. I can assure you that water has seeped in there.

I don't know just how much more rain it will take before it starts coming into the garage and then into the house.

Here is a picture of what it looks like just outside my garage door.

And, here is a picture of what it looks like to the right of my fish pond. And notice how the framing around the bird feeders is floating away and would have except it was around the poles so can only float so far.

Now, if you want to see what it looked like before, scroll back to my last post to check out that very same tree, the same homemade seat at the tree and the bird feeders.

Some neighbors cannot enter the community because there is a few feet of water at the entrance to the development..... uh, which means I also cannot get out. I can only hope FIRST.... that water does not come into my home and SECOND hope the water recedes at the development (even with the rain tonight, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday) that I will be able to leave on Sunday for the rug camp in Cape May, NJ.

Sure has been a couple testy years as far as weather....drought, flooding, two years of bad snows. But I have my hooking to keep me calm and as soon as I go walk my neighbor's Rottweiler (since the rains have subsided temporarily) that is what will soothe my nerves.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Oh but I do love to watch the deer that roam my property and keep buckets of water for them during the drought. Problem is that I get absolutely nothing done when they are within my eyesight. They have such small faces and huge ears for hearing that they look imbalanced on such a delicate head. So since my deer mean so much to me it made sense that I should hook the pattern Woodland Deer by the same name as my address (a Woolley Fox pattern).

I took a picture of the rug with a flash and one without flash. This picture with the flash sorta washes out the true color while the one without a flash is somewhat dark.

So the other day I threw out a couple boxes of old cereal thinking my birds might enjoy a different menu. Much to my surprise my deer decided to come up and enjoy the meal themselves. These pictures were taken just outside my bedroom window so they are close but 3 are behind the tree. But the youngster is getting even closer after having munched on cereal as well.

The fawn with the spots must have heard the camera or perhaps there was a reflection of the metal from the camera but I froze fearing it would bolt and take the other 3 deer with it and wanted to enjoy this scene a little longer.

After a bit of a snack my woodland deer moved into the wooded area but they will be back as they know this is a safe place for them to visit. Ahhhhh, I sure do enjoy my nature.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

When I joined the Rughookers Yahoo challenge we were to post an updated picture the first of each month to show our progress and provide an opportunity for discussion and questions. Well, I'm a couple days late in posting my picture on the group but thought I'd also post a picture here. Perhaps Jane-HO will visit my blog and see what I've done in the way of hooking it whereas she is taking on the endeavor of quilt piecing the entire Jane Stickle quilt ~ whew!

As previously mentioned I've chosen a small size rug for me to hook but other rug hookers have taken on a humongous task of making a bigger hooked rug using more, if not all the squares in the quilt. There were a couple different ways I'd thought of doing the border; could have been a hit and miss rows of hooking around a 2" border, thought of having a beauty line and a solid dark border, then decided to do the triangles and have it lean toward the semblance of the original Jane Stickle cone shape border. One think I knew for sure was that it would not have hooked scallops because that would be a nightmare to bind. So here is my rug thus far.

It will be quite interesting to see the final results of all the hooked rugs when the challenge comes to a close in April 2012.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Just look at this gorgeous olde looking rug. It is a beauty that I just have to hook one day. The gals are at it again; Polly Minick and Laurie Simpson have co-authored another new book which will be released soon, probably within the next two weeks.

And, this is another hooked design that is offered in the book along with patterns for 3 quilts, 2 additional hooked rugs (total of 4 rugs) and one denim jacket.